Post by blackcrowheart on Oct 19, 2006 16:10:44 GMT -5
Center protects Native American languages By: Alyssa Farley
www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2006/10/16\
/News/Center.Protects.Native.American.Languages-2351492.shtml?norewrite2\
00610170411&sourcedomain=www.dailyutahchronicle.com
<http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2006/10/1\
6/News/Center.Protects.Native.American.Languages-2351492.shtml?norewrite\
200610170411&sourcedomain=www.dailyutahchronicle.com>
*
[Linguistics graduate student Zeb Pischnotte, a research assistant at
the Center for American Indian Languages, enters
field notes into a database. Languages such as Xinka from Central
America will be compiled into a dictionary and grammar guide to help
preserve endangered languages.] Media Credit: Josh Lee Linguistics
graduate student Zeb Pischnotte, a research assistant at the Center for
American Indian Languages, enters field notes into a database. Languages
such as Xinka from Central America will be compiled into a dictionary
and grammar guide to help preserve endangered languages.
Of the 175 native languages spoken in North America, only 20 are
currently being taught to children.
More languages are nearing extinction now than ever before, according to
the U's Center for American Indian Languages, and the center is striving
to change that fact.
The U's Center for American Indian Languages is an organization composed
of linguists whose goal is to maintain and revitalize the native
languages of the indigenous peoples of North and South America.
Projects focus on the documentation and preservation of endangered
languages and community revitalization programs for groups who request
the center's help.
Lyle Campbell, professor of linguistics and director of the center,
helped specifically with the documentation of one of the native
languages in El Salvador. "There was one native Linka speaker, and I
worked with him (to preserve the language) up to his death," Campbell
said.
Information that has been passed down about natural medicines and
wildlife often disappears when native speakers pass away, so many
projects focus on preserving those lesser-known languages.
One current project at the center involves Mauricio Mixco and Marianna
DiPaolo, who currently work on preserving and enhancing the availability
of Goshute and Shoshoni materials.
Wilson Silva, a doctorate student, created the Amazonian Language
Research and Documentation Group.
He and other graduate students are working to provide literary resources
in the form of stories, specifically for the language of Ticuna, spoken
in the Amazonian state in Brazil.
Silva became interested in endangered languages as an undergraduate in
Brazil. He worked with the Sateré-Mawé language group and later
with Ticuna.
"When I was first exposed to the indigenous languages of Brazil, I was
amazed at their exoticness," he said.
Silva also said the importance of preserving such unique languages is
huge. "(Language) shows us different ways of seeing the world," he said.
According to the center, increasing awareness of the important
information contained in language can help linguistic diversity to cease
being seen as a hindrance and become celebrated for the insights it
gives into the means and methods of human _expression.
For more information on the center, visit its Web site at
www.cail.utah.edu/.
www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2006/10/16\
/News/Center.Protects.Native.American.Languages-2351492.shtml?norewrite2\
00610170411&sourcedomain=www.dailyutahchronicle.com
<http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2006/10/1\
6/News/Center.Protects.Native.American.Languages-2351492.shtml?norewrite\
200610170411&sourcedomain=www.dailyutahchronicle.com>
*
[Linguistics graduate student Zeb Pischnotte, a research assistant at
the Center for American Indian Languages, enters
field notes into a database. Languages such as Xinka from Central
America will be compiled into a dictionary and grammar guide to help
preserve endangered languages.] Media Credit: Josh Lee Linguistics
graduate student Zeb Pischnotte, a research assistant at the Center for
American Indian Languages, enters field notes into a database. Languages
such as Xinka from Central America will be compiled into a dictionary
and grammar guide to help preserve endangered languages.
Of the 175 native languages spoken in North America, only 20 are
currently being taught to children.
More languages are nearing extinction now than ever before, according to
the U's Center for American Indian Languages, and the center is striving
to change that fact.
The U's Center for American Indian Languages is an organization composed
of linguists whose goal is to maintain and revitalize the native
languages of the indigenous peoples of North and South America.
Projects focus on the documentation and preservation of endangered
languages and community revitalization programs for groups who request
the center's help.
Lyle Campbell, professor of linguistics and director of the center,
helped specifically with the documentation of one of the native
languages in El Salvador. "There was one native Linka speaker, and I
worked with him (to preserve the language) up to his death," Campbell
said.
Information that has been passed down about natural medicines and
wildlife often disappears when native speakers pass away, so many
projects focus on preserving those lesser-known languages.
One current project at the center involves Mauricio Mixco and Marianna
DiPaolo, who currently work on preserving and enhancing the availability
of Goshute and Shoshoni materials.
Wilson Silva, a doctorate student, created the Amazonian Language
Research and Documentation Group.
He and other graduate students are working to provide literary resources
in the form of stories, specifically for the language of Ticuna, spoken
in the Amazonian state in Brazil.
Silva became interested in endangered languages as an undergraduate in
Brazil. He worked with the Sateré-Mawé language group and later
with Ticuna.
"When I was first exposed to the indigenous languages of Brazil, I was
amazed at their exoticness," he said.
Silva also said the importance of preserving such unique languages is
huge. "(Language) shows us different ways of seeing the world," he said.
According to the center, increasing awareness of the important
information contained in language can help linguistic diversity to cease
being seen as a hindrance and become celebrated for the insights it
gives into the means and methods of human _expression.
For more information on the center, visit its Web site at
www.cail.utah.edu/.